Obama: Troop safety key to Iraq pullout

FARGO, N.D., July 3 (UPI) -- Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., rejected claims Thursday that he has changed his position on withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq.

Reacting to media reports -- including a report Thursday in The Washington Post -- suggesting he had backtracked on a promise to withdraw combat troops within 16 months of taking office, Obama told reporters in Fargo, N.D., what he is saying now is no different from what he said on the subject during the Democratic primary campaign.

"I have always said, and again you can take a look at the language, that as commander in chief I would always reserve the right to do what's best in America's national interests," Obama said in the second of two news conferences in Fargo Thursday. "And if it turned out, for example, that we had to in certain months slow the pace because of the safety of American troops in terms of getting combat troops out, of course we would take that into account."

Obama said he intends to withdraw combat troops in 16 months "at a pace of one to two brigades per month."

Maintaining a long-term occupation in Iraq would be a "strategic error," Obama said, because conditions are worsening in Afghanistan, al-Qaida has regrouped in Iraq and the Iraq war is costing $10 billion to $12 billion each month "that we desperately need here at home."